Winners, losers in Corbett's budget

Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane: The attorney general’s office got an almost $5 million bump in allocations, or 5.7 percent, to almost $92.3 million. By percentage, only six state agencies or departments did better.

Children’s Advocacy Centers: A new $2 million in state funding.

Education: Local school district officials might be unhappy because the basic education subsidy stays the same as this year and that’s what forces spending cuts or tax increases. But no aspect of the budget gets a bigger bump in sheer dollars than education, $316 million (2.9 percent), plus another $5 million for “Ready to Succeed” scholarships for the state Higher Education Assistance Agency. That includes $150.8 million more for the public school employees retirement system, $100 million for the “Ready to Learn” block grant, $20 million more for special education, $10 million more for Pre-K Counts, $9.5 million more for early intervention and $3.5 million more for community colleges.

Environmental protection: With a 9 percent, $11.54 million hike, the Department of Environmental Protection gets the fourth-largest increase by percentage. That includes an $8.2 million increase for environmental protection operations (10.8 percent).

Ethics Commission: $222,000 (11.9 percent) more for enforcing the state Ethics Act.

Medicaid patients: $122.7 million more under the governor’s expanded Medicaid plan, but not the Medicaid plan Democrats want.

Mental health treatment: $41.1 million more (6 percent).

People with intellectual disabilities: $56.7 million more overall in four categories for their treatment.

State police: $12.46 million more (6 percent), most of it to hire more troopers.

Technology schools: The Pennsylvania College of Technology and the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology get the same $2 million more (12.8 percent for Penn College, 19.4 percent for Thaddeus Stevens).

LOSERS

Gov. Tom Corbett: The governor had hoped to make a much bigger splash with education funding to combat poor polling numbers related to his past education cuts, but had to slash his planned education increases in half. Plus, he has House and Senate Republicans mad at him.

Alternative fuels: Lose $6.2 million in funding.

Civil Air Patrol: The governor used his line-item veto to cut all its $100,000 in funding.

Commission on Crime and Delinquency: A quarter of its budget cut.

Department of Community and Economic Development: Another almost $32.4 million (13.7 percent) slashed, including half the budget of Discovered and Developed in PA, which promotes entrepreneurship and technology transfers; almost half the budget for Keystone Communities, which funds the popular Main Street and Elm Street programs and enterprise zones for disadvantaged industrial/manufacturing and business sites; and almost half the budget for Pennsylvania First, which provides machinery and equipment loans and money for job training, infrastructure, environmental fixes and other site preparation work.

Department of Conservation and Natural Resources: Takes the biggest hit with more than half its budget cut.

Home and community-based services: A $122 million cut (54.2 percent).

Job training: Besides the job training cuts in economic development, Keystone Works, the Department of Labor and Industry program that matches the unemployed with training for new jobs, gets slashed by 90 percent.

Long-term care funding: An $85.5 million cut (10.4 percent).

General Assembly: Governor cut $65 million by using a line-item veto. That is, if the assembly doesn’t try to reverse the governor’s cut.

State Colleges and State-Related Universities: Only Thaddeus Stevens and Penn College get new money. The others stay the same.

— BORYS KRAWCZENIUK

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